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Framus Cobra - Any opinions?

I've heard some pretty good things about the Cobras and I was wondering if any JCFers own one, at one time owned one, or have played through one. People have told me that the Cobra picks up where the Mesa Boogie Rectifiers left off, and does pretty much everything they can do at their absolute best but better / tighter / smoother.

The only gripes I've heard about the amp are that the effects loop isn't footswitchable, it doesn't get deafeningly loud, and the tolex isn't exactly the best. I've also heard rumors about their reliability (but never heard anyone specifically talking about how their Cobra broke down).

I tried searching but the Search function doesn't seem to be working properly / at all right now. It gives me some sort of weird error.

Re: Framus Cobra - Any opinions?

Have you checked the HCF forums? seems like a ton of people own them over there. The Clips sound badass...I would love to be able to try one out, but at the same time I am pretty happy with my Engl Fireball...

I saw Killswitch Engage a few months ago and I thought they had killer tone, although Josh's cobra crapped out on him before the show started ...Adam's seemed to be fine.

I know a great dealer in Florida if you wanna pull the trigger on one...

Re: Framus Cobra - Any opinions?

Yeah, I found a couple of decent clips on the HC forum.. I just avoided posting it there simply because there are so many trolls / morons on the amp forum (though, there are some knowledgeable and cool people, too).

I'm just thinking about dumping some amp gear and getting something else. I have a person in mind that I'm going to go with if I choose to buy a new Framus. I just wish I could try one out in person.

Re: Framus Cobra - Any opinions?

I have a Cobra 1/2 stack.

It DOES NOT IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM sound like a Recto. I had a Single Recto. I sold it to a good friend. We play together all the time. Honestly, the Recto sounds like complete warbly rumbly mud next to the Cobra. That's not just my opinion. I have heard musician and non musician friends say the same thing when they hear us play together. If you HAD to say, well does the Cobra sound more like a Marshall or a Recto, I'd say neither but it's CLOSER to a Recto but again, it's not like a Recto.

The tolex to me feels a little cheap. The cab easly gets impressions from the head's feet but it's nothing to cry about. The whole unit feels very soild. The knobs turn with east but feel very solid. The speaker jacks on the cab feel a little cheap, like the could be tighter. The jacks on my MXR EQ are so tight you can almost not get the cable out. The Cobra cab's jacks are not this tight.

Sound: Clean is SUPER clean and sparkly.

Crunch: GREAT for rhythm. You can have the gain and 1/2 and get a killer sound.

Lead: Squishier than the crunch.

All controls are responsive and not bewildering like the Mesa. They do what they're supposed to do.

As for not being loud...

With the notch switches on you will get a mid scoop and a perceived drop in volume. Just turn it up a bit more.

If you keep the channel masters under 75% then the amp will not seem too loud. You can have the global master up 1/2 way and you'll wonder why it's not Mesa loud. Now put a channel master past 75% and then you will for sure lower the global master. I found this out through a HC thread.

Almost everyone agrees the amp is biased cold from the factory, sometimes as low as 22. Most players who rebiased set it around 30-35 and say that makes a HUGE difference and gives it even more balls, and makes the bright switch on the clean channel more noticeable. The older ones don't have external bias adjustments, the new ones do have external bias probe slots and external bias trimpot.

Do a search on HC for Framus and read every single Cobra thread.

There's rumors of unreliability. One guy in Australia had a problem. And it might be Killswitch Engage or some other new band that's rumored to have problems but it has not been proven.

Listen to Derek's clips at rocksolidamps.com

He knows the amp inside and out and his recordings are faithful renditions. It's a tight amp and cuts through very well. I've become more fond of not using the notches.

Let me know if you have any more questions. I've had mine for a little over a year and have not regretted it one bit.

Re: Framus Cobra - Any opinions?

Heh. Honestly, I might be the first person ever to utter these words, but the Powerball is just not for me. I've started to develop a love/hate relationship with my Powerball where some weeks I'll love the sounds and others I'll just cringe.. I love how it sounds alone, but I can't get into how it sounds live / with a full band. I might list it in the classifieds again in a couple of days.

Re: Framus Cobra - Any opinions?

I was torn between the Powerball and the Cobra and was not able to play either before getting one. I got a powerball at a good price... Was very happy always wondred though about the Cobra... @ NAMM I finally got to play it I personally much prefered the powerball to it. I would take the Framus over a boogie anyday but I would go Uber or Powerball over the framus myself personally.

Re: Framus Cobra - Any opinions?

DAMN I love that widow!!!! My wife just got me a NJ Bich and I am really digging it (first Rich I have onwed actually) and I would love a USA Rich (No Roman Rich's though [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] )

Re: Framus Cobra - Any opinions?

(putting on flamesuit...) Bill Leverty from Firehouse is a Framus endorsee these days. I got their last cd and while it was pretty good (if you're into them), the guitar tone on that album wass about the poorest I've heard from him, and he usually sounds good - but then again, "studio magic" could have screwed that up. It probably wasn't ever the Framus anyway... Why was I posting again? [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

I'll go back to the retarded kingdom of Line 6 now... [img]/images/graemlins/baby.gif[/img]

Re: Framus Cobra - Any opinions?

My negatives on the Framus were the clean was good but very bright and I do like bright but when I played just seemed overly bright... The lead tones were overly bright too even with messing with the EQ for my taste... a little scratchy nail on chalkboard type feel just a touch. Spent about 45 minutes with them amp but it didn't wow me but then again I was able to play Diezels bogners and VHT's all day too!

Re: Framus Cobra - Any opinions?

There's some QT clips of me playing my Cobra. Recorded with a video camera so the sound quality isn't the greatest.

The Cobra overall is bright but that can be controlled. The volume you play at will also have an effect on the brightness. For me it comes down to how do I like the amp on it's own and how well does it fit with the mix with the other musicians I'm playing with. So far this amp works for me.

Nothing wrong with not liking an amp. No flamesuits needed. I look for all the pros and cons when buying gear so I love to hear the bad stuff too.

Re: Framus Cobra - Any opinions?

Venom your clips were the ones that made me want the Cobra in the first place and I so so wnated one but when I got to try it honestly I wasn't floored I think I was expecting something different maybe

Re: Framus Cobra - Any opinions?

Clean is great. Lead channel is kind of "squishy" because it has more compression than the crunch channel.

The crunch channel is Spectacular. I use it for leads also and the harmonics just fly off the guitar.

Read the reviews on harmony-central. Most people that have one love it.

And it can easily get deafingly loud if that is what you want. Believe me - comes with a warning indicating it can damage your ears.

It can be bright or not depending on how you set it. I think people here that have tried one for a little while maybe have not had enough time to learn how to set the amp to their taste. I think it definitely should be rebiased.
I put JJ tubes in the preamp section and Groove Tubes in the power section.

I got it rebiased and I will have to say it does sound a lot better - less shrill, cleaner and cuts through the mix.

Sparkling highs, killer chunk sound and all the gain you will ever need. Clean is excellent. The crunch channel is magic for both rhythm and lead.

Very versitile sounding but you have to play with it to get familiar with how to set it like any boutique amp. 45 minutes is not enough time. It took me about a year and a half (of course I did not work on it for very long at any one time) but I finally got a killer sound.

It is programmable and you can use a midi pedal. 2 Master volumes so you can change volumes for the differrent channels. That is a really cool feature.

Read the reviews from the people who actually own one on harmony-central.

You have to play with it and get it rebiased and it will sound great. The JJ tubes I put in are normally a little darker I have heard so maybe that took away from any shrill or brightness.

But it sounds great now. The only thing I personally would trade it for might be a Diezel Herbert but thats about it.

Re: Framus Cobra - Any opinions?

I did some recording last night with my drummer. I had the crunch channel set to about 1/2 gain. It had more than enough gain for what we were playing. I cranked the channel master and I didn't have to raise the global master much. It will get very very loud. I agree with shredmonster that you have to play with it for a while. I used to love the notch switch on but now I leave it off and it cuts through a lot more.